Energy 82 (2015) 629e639

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

An experimental study on vortex-generator insert with different

arrangements of delta-winglets
M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi*, O. Sartipzadeh, A. Alizadeh
Department of Chemical Engineering, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood 36199-43189, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Heat transfer enhancement in a tube using the VG (vortex-generator) insert with different arrangements
Received 13 August 2014 of the delta-winglets is investigated. Fourteen VG inserts with the longitudinal and forward arrangement
Received in revised form of the delta-winglets are made from the aluminum sheets with a length of 350 mm, a width of 14.5 mm,
24 December 2014
and a thickness of 0.6 mm. The heat transfer and pressure drop results achieved from the use of the VG
Accepted 24 January 2015
inserts inside the tube are compared with those obtained for the plain tube. It is found that at the
Available online 18 February 2015
transitional flow through the plain tube, Notter-Rouse equation predicts the current experimental
Nusselt number better than Gnielinski equation. Also, the experimental results reveal that the use of the
Keywords:
Heat transfer enhancement
VG inserts inside the tube yields higher heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop than the plain tube,
Vortex-generator insert and these parameters augment with increasing the delta-winglets. The appropriate tradeoff between the
Delta-winglet enhanced heat transfer and the friction is found by using a special arrangement of the delta-winglets on
Different arrangement the VG insert which presents the highest heat transfer coefficient as well as the maximum values of
Experimental considered PEC (performance evaluation criterion). The maximum PEC of 1.41 is found for this VG insert
at Re ¼ 8715.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction electronic chip [24,25], and micro-and-mini channels [26]. How-

Numerous experimental and numerical studies have been con-
ducted on HTE (heat transfer enhancement) technologies in order
to save the energy and reduce the size and cost of heat exchange
devices. One of the main categories of these technologies is called
as passive technique. It means that there is no need of any kinds of
external forces, for example: VG (vortex-generator) and turbulator
device, rough and extended surfaces, and additives for liquids and
gases [1]. The VGs enhance the transport phenomena by devel-
oping longitudinal, transverse, or normal swirl flows and destabi-
lizing the flow field. It increases the fluid mixing, breakdowns the
thermal boundary layer leading to an increase in the mean velocity
and temperature gradient, and thereby enhances the convective
heat transfer coefficient. The wing and winglet VGs with the
triangular or/and rectangular shapes have been investigated for
HTE in different heat exchange systems by many researchers, such
as circular and non-circular ducts [2e7], plate-fin heat exchanger
[8e14], tube-fin heat exchanger [15e21], heat sink [22,23],
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ98 9151811311; fax: þ98 58147244818.
E-mail address: mkhaliabadi@gmail.com (M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi).
ever, there are very scarce studies which investigated the applica-
tion of the VGs inside the circular tubes as inserts.
Heat transfer and flow characteristics of a tube fitted with the
transverse delta-winglet on the twisted-tape insert were investi-
gated experimentally by Eiamsa-ard et al. [27]. Their results show
that the mean Nusselt number and friction factor in the tube with
the delta-winglet twisted tape increase with decreasing the twisted
ratio and increasing the depth of the wing cut ratio. In another work
[28], they described the effects of the twisted-tapes consisting of
centre wings and alternate-axes on the thermohydraulic properties
of the tube. It was concluded that the superior performance of this
type of the inserts could be attributed to the combined effects of the
following actions: (1) a common swirling flow by the twisted-tape
(2) a vortex generated by the wing (3) a strong collision of the
recombined streams behind each alternate point. Eiamsa-ard and
Promvonge [29] studied the convective heat transfer and friction
behaviors of the turbulent air flow through a straight tape with the
transverse double-sided delta-wings. Their experimental results
reveal that for using the delta-wings, the increases in the mean
Nusselt number and friction factor are up to 165% and 14.8 times of
the plain tube, and the maximum thermal performance factor is
1.19.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2015.01.072
0360-5442/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
630 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639
Deltaewing, rectangular-wing, delta-winglet, and rectangular-
winglet are four basic shapes of the VGs [30]. Based on the litera-
ture, the VG inserts with different arrangements of the delta-
winglets have been not investigated in the past. In the present
investigation, experiment are carried out to determine the heat
transfer enhancement and flow pressure drop of a circular and
straight tube fitted with the VG inserts fabricated with different
arrangements of the delta-winglets. A performance evaluation
criterion is used to evaluate the potential application of the pro-
posed VGs as passive heat transfer enhancers in the tubular heat
exchangers.
2. Experimental setup
Fig. 1 shows the fabricated close loop setup in the present study.
As described in the figure, it consists of,
I. Transmission fluid state with a stainless-steel tank to store
the working fluid, a centrifugal pump (PKm60, Pedrollo) to
drive the working fluid, a by-pass loop with two ball valves to
adjust the flow rate, and a pressure relief valve to protect the
equipment.
II. Measuring instruments with an ultrasonic flow meter
(Flownetix®-100series™) to measure the volumetric flow
rate, two PT-100 thermocouples to measure the inlet & outlet
bulk temperatures, five K-type thermocouples to measure
the test section surface temperature, and two pressure
transmitters (PSCH00.2BCIA, Sensys) to measure the pres-
sure drop.
III. Monitoring system with three indicators (MT4W, Autonics)
to monitor the flow rate and local pressures, a temperature
logger (SU-105PRR, Samwon) to monitor the bulk tempera-
tures, and a temperature logger (SU-105KRR, Samwon) to
monitor the surface temperatures.
IV. Constant temperature bath system with a stainless-steel
two-phase chamber, two 2 kW electrical heaters to boil the
two-phase chamber fluid, a protection pressure valve to
maintain safety, and a tubular level meter.
V. Cooling unit with a double-tube heat exchanger for primary
cooling, a plate-fin heat exchanger (B3-014C-12-3.0-H,
Danfuss) for supplementary cooling, and a rotameter (LZT-
Fig. 1. Fabricated experimental close loop setup.
1005G, MBLD) to control the cooling fluid flow rate, i.e. tap
water.
The main flow line which is a straight copper tube has an in-
ternal diameter of 15 mm and an external diameter of 17 mm. The
heat transfer part of the tube is 350 mm, and the entry part is
1000 mm to accomplish the fully developed flow at the entrance of
the inserts. As presented in Fig. 1, the entry part is well insulated in
order to eliminate the heat transfer with the ambient. Also, the
constant temperature bath system is carefully insulated with
20 mm thick of glass-wool.
3. VG (Vortex-generator) inserts
The VGs may be divided into the longitudinal and transverse
shapes according to their rotating axis direction [31]. In general,
the longitudinal VGs have been reported to be more effective than
the transverse ones on the heat transfer enhancement [4]. It has
been also reported that the heat transfer rate and thermal per-
formance of the forward arrangement of the VGs are higher than
those of the backward one [29]. Therefore, fourteen VG inserts
with the longitudinal and forward arrangement of the delta-
winglets are made from the aluminum sheets with a length of
350 mm, a width of 14.5 mm, and a thickness of 0.6 mm. To study
the effect of the delta-winglets arrangement on the VG insert at
comparable conditions, all the inserts have the same length-
width-thickness and similar dimension for the delta-winglets, as
shown in Fig. 2(a). The specific geometrical parameters of the
delta-winglets are presented in Fig. 2(b). In the present study, the
delta-winglets arrangement on the VG insert are defined in the
four classes as follows,
o Class 1: One side cut with one delta-winglet
o Class 2: One side cut with two delta-winglets
o Class 3: Two side cut with two delta-winglets
o Class 4: Two side cut with four delta-winglets
Based on the above classification, 2, 2, 5, and 5 arrangements of
the delta-winglets on the VG insert are considered for the Class 1 to
4, respectively, see Fig. 2(c).
 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639 631

Fig. 2. (a) A graphical representation of produced vortex-generator inserts (b) Specific geometrical parameters of vortex-generators (c) Classification of delta-winglets
arrangements.
632 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639

4. Experimental procedure The performance of the inserts is evaluated relatively to the

plain tube in term of a PEC (performance evaluation criterion)
The experimental procedure is as follows, which can be expressed as [33],

I. Firstly, to validate the current experimental results and ðNuE =NuNE Þ

h¼ (7)
create a base line, the plain tube is selected as test section. ðfE =fNE Þ1=3
II. The constant temperature bath system is prepared.
III. The reservoir is filled with the water, as working fluid. where, NuE, fE, NuNE, and fNE are the Nusselt numbers and friction
IV. The pump is switched on, and the flow rate of the working factors of the enhanced (tube fitted with a VG insert) and non-
fluid through the loop is set at 2.0 L/min. enhanced (plain tube) conditions, respectively. This criterion is a
V. The outlet temperature of the working fluid is restored at the ‘the larger the better’ parameter, and a high value of that indicates a
constant value (30  C) by using the cooling system. delta-winglets arrangement with appropriate performance.
VI. After the steady-state condition, the required data are
recorded. 6. Uncertainty analysis
VII. The flow rate through the loop is increased to 2.5 L/min and
the steps (V) and (VI) are repeated. A detailed systematical uncertainty analysis is carried out to
VIII. The step (VII) is repeated up to 5.0 L/min. estimate the errors associated with the experiments by using the
IX. An insert is fitted inside the straight tube, and all the steps following equation [34],
are repeated.
2 !2 31=2
X
M
vR
It should be noted that all the factors are measured six times, dR ¼ 4 dX 5 (8)
and the most centralized four of them are chosen to calculate the j¼1
vXj j
average values used in the data reduction section.
where, j, M, dR, and dXj are the specific parameter counter, number
of the independent variables, uncertainties associated with the
5. Data reduction dependent, R, and independent, Xj, variables. The uncertainty
values for different instruments used in the experiments are given
The equation of the convective heat transfer rate is used to in Table 1. Also, the maximum possible error for the parameters
compute the heat transfer coefficient, involved in the analysis are estimated and summarized in Table 2.


Qconv ¼ mCP Tb;out  Tb;in (1) 7. Results and discussion

where, m, CP, Tb,out and Tb,in represent the mass flow rate, specific 7.1. Validation test
heat capacity, inlet and outlet bulk temperatures of the working
fluid, respectively. The effective heat transfer coefficient is esti- Experiments are initially conducted inside the plain tube to
mated from the ratio of the convective heat transfer rate to the total verify the facility reliability and check the results consistency.
surface area and logarithmic mean temperature difference of the Experimental results including Nusselt number and friction factor
wall-and-bulk fluid, are compared with those of the single phase fluid correlations in
open literature,
Qconv
h¼ (2) (a) Equation of Gnielinski [35]
AðTw  Tb ÞLMTD
 
f
ðRe  1000ÞPr
DTwb;in  DTwb;out 2
ðTw  Tb ÞLMTD ¼
  (3) Nu ¼  1=2 (9)
log DTwb;in DTwb;out
2=3 
1 þ 12:7 2f Pr 1
where, DTw-b,in and DTw-b,out denote the differences between the
wall temperature and the bulk fluid temperature at the inlet and where,
outlet of the heat transfer section. Also, the average Nusselt number
is defined as, f ¼ ð1:58 ln Re  3:82Þ2 (10)

hDh
Nu ¼ (4) 2300 < Re < 5  106
k
The pressure drop is estimated from the experimental obser- (b) Equation of Notter-Rouse [36]
vations and theoretical formula as given below,
Nu ¼ 5 þ 0:015Re0:856 Pr0:347 (11)
DP ¼ Pin  Pout (5) (c) Equation of Petukov [37]
To appraise the hydraulic performance, the Fanning friction
factor is estimated from the pressure drop values by using the f ¼ ð0:79 ln Re  1:64Þ2 (12)
following equation [32],
3000 < Re < 5  106
2rDh DP
f ¼ (6) Comparison of the values calculated through Eqs. (9)e(12) and
LG2
their deviations with the current experimental results are pre-
where, G is the mass velocity. sented in Fig. 3. The comparison shows a good agreement between
 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639
Table 1
Uncertainties of experimental instruments.
Name of instrument Range of instrument Variable measured
Flow meter 0e20 L min1 Volumetric flow rate
Thermocouple 50e200  C Bulk temperature
Thermocouple 73e260  C Wall temperature
Transmitter 0e20,000 Pa Local pressure
the present experimental results and the previous empirical data,
and it lies within ±10% error. It is found that Notter-Rouse equation
[36], Eq. (11), predicts the current experimental Nusselt values
better than Gnielinski equation [35], Eq. (9). Also, this figure shows
a small percentage error in term of the friction factor at the lower
Reynolds numbers, while a good fitting is obtained at the higher
Reynolds numbers. The present plain tube results for Nusselt
number and friction factor are correlated as follows,
Nu ¼ 0:00599Re0:811 Pr1:104 (13)
f ¼ 1:0123Re0:371 (14)
3485 < Re < 8715
According to the above correlations, the mean deviation be-
tween the actual Nusselt number and Eq. (13) is 4.2%, and the mean
deviation between the actual friction factor and Eq. (14) is 1.6%.
7.2. Heat transfer and pressure drop results
In this section, the heat transfer and pressure drop character-
istics of the water flow inside the tube equipped with the VG insert
at different arrangements of the delta-winglet for the volumetric
flow rate between 2.0 and 5.0 L/min are described. The results of
the plain tube are also reported for comparisons.
The effect of the delta-winglets arrangement on the heat
transfer enhancement of the VG insert is shown in Fig. 4(aed) in
term of the heat transfer coefficient versus the volumetric flow rate.
For all classes, the heat transfer coefficient considerably enhances
with increasing the flow rate. This enhancement is responsible by a
decrease of the thermal boundary thickness due to the promoted
turbulent intensity. Obviously under similar conditions, the heat
transfer coefficient of the tube fitted with the VG inserts is higher
than that of the plain tube, and its difference enhances with
increasing the flow rate. In general, the delta-winglets on the insert
increase the flow mixing area and turbulence intensity, interrupt
the thermal boundary layer development, and generate the swirl
flows or vortices which are favorable for the increase of the heat
transfer coefficient. The potential of the heat transfer enhancement
for the VG inserts depends on the location and strength of the
generated swirl flows relative to the delta-winglets and hot walls.
As presented in Fig. 4(a), the Type 1 shows higher values of the
heat transfer coefficient in comparison with the Type 2. Likewise as
presented in Fig. 4(b), the heat transfer coefficient curve of the Type
3 places between those of the plain and Type 4 at the flow rates
Table 2
Maximum possible error of experimental parameters.
Parameter name Uncertainty error
Convective heat transfer coefficient 1.31%
Nusselt number 1.53%
Friction factor 2.42%
PEC 2.86%
633
Least division in Min. and max. values measured Uncertainty
measuring instrument in experiments
0.01 L min1 2e5 L min1 0.200%
0.1  C 30e48  C 0.208%
0.1  C 48e65  C 0.153%
10 Pa 125e1700 Pa 0.580%
lower than 4.0 L/min, but at the higher flow rates, the heat transfer
coefficient of the Type 3 is found to be higher than that of the Type
4. It can be also seen that the heat transfer coefficient values for
Class 2 are slightly higher than those of Class 1. This is attributed to
the additional delta-winglets in the Class 2. A comparison between
Fig. 4(b) and (c) clears that the VG inserts of the one side cut with
the two delta-winglets (Class 2) and the two side cut with the two
delta-winglets (Class 3) have close values of the heat transfer co-
efficient. However, in the Class 3, the Type 7 presents the highest
values of the heat transfer coefficient, and the Type 8 comes in the
second. Based on Fig. 2(c), it can be clarified that the opposite ar-
rangements of the delta-winglets (Types 7 and 8) causes higher
values of the heat transfer coefficient in comparison with the uni-
lateral arrangements (Types 6 and 9). It is interesting to note that at
the studied range, the heat transfer coefficient of the Types 5, 6, and
9 is lower than that of the Types 3 and 4. It illustrates that only
some arrangements of the two side cut of the delta-winglets are
effective than the one side cut of the delta-winglets, when the
number of the delta-winglets is the same. It is worth to state that
the heat transfer coefficient of the tube equipped with the inserts in
the Class 4 is considerably improved when compared with that of
the plain tube and tube equipped with the other classes. This is
responsible by increasing the number of the delta-winglets and
thereby formation more numbers of the swirl flows. As shown in
Fig. 4(d), while the Type 11 has considerable values of the heat
transfer coefficient at the lower flow rates, its heat transfer coeffi-
cient is not significant in comparison with the other types at the
higher flow rates. In addition, the maximum heat transfer coeffi-
cient values at the lower and higher flow rates are obtained for the
Type 14 and Type 12, respectively. In fact, the delta-winglets
arrangement based on the Type 12 increases more significant the
Fig. 3. Comparison between present experimental data and previous empirical
correlations.
634 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639
Fig. 4. Effect of delta-winglets arrangement on heat transfer coefficient: (a) Class 1 (b) Class 2 (c) Class 3 (d) Class 4.
turbulence intensity and interrupts more effective the thermal
boundary layer at the higher flow rates. It can be concluded that in
addition to Reynolds number, the variation of the delta-winglets
arrangement affects the location and strength of the longitudinal,
transverse, and normal swirl flows for the tube fitted with the VG
inserts. Also, the VG inserts with the maximum number of the
delta-winglets, i.e. Class 4, lead to a significant exchange between
the core and the wall fluids. The mentioned mechanism causes
higher values of the heat transfer coefficient for these types of the
VG inserts.
The pressure drop results are demonstrated in Fig. 5(aed). Trend
found for all classes is that the pressure drop considerably increases
with increasing the flow rate, and apparently, the fitted tube pre-
sents higher values compared to the plain one. The dissipation of
the fluid dynamic pressure at high viscosity loss near the tube wall
and the interaction of the pressure forces with the inertial forces in
the boundary layer due to the swirl flows generated by the VG in-
serts are the main reason for the pressure drop enhancement of the
fitted tube [38]. It is found that for the considered range, different
arrangements of the delta-winglets in the Class 1 and Class 2
exhibit slight variations in the pressure drop. This signifies the
promising characteristic of the delta-winglets arrangement with
the higher enhancement in the heat transfer. However, the pressure
drop increases with increasing the number of the delta-winglets on
the VG insert; the pressure drop of the Class 4 is the highest, and
that of the Class 3 and Class 2 takes the second place, while that of
the Class 1 is the lowest. This can be explained by the fact that for
the classes with higher delta-winglets, the change of the flow
pattern leads to the increase of the flow resistance and thereby
greater pressure drop than that induced by the classes with lower
delta-wings. In the other words, this can be caused by the increase
of shear force on the walls acted by the higher numbers of swirling
flows in the tube for the VG inserts with the higher number of the
delta-winglets. It can be seen that the Type 8 offers the highest
values of the pressure drop for the Class 3. Also, the Type 11 and
Type 10 have the highest values of the pressure drop for the Class 4,
respectively. This is attributed to the low distance between two
opposite delta-winglets in these arrangements of the VG inserts.
To better understand the effects of the flow rate and delta-
winglets arrangement on the thermal-hydraulic performance of
the VG inserts, the ratios of Nusselt number and friction factor of
the tube fitted with different VG inserts to those of the plain tube
are also plotted in Fig. 6(aeb) as function of Reynolds number. The
subscripts “E” and “NE” refer to the enhanced condition and non-
enhanced condition, respectively. For a comprehensive insight,
the results of all classes are displayed in the same graphs. Obvi-
ously, Nusselt number and friction factor of the tube fitted with the
VG inserts are higher than that the plain tube. Although Nusselt
number of each type increases with increasing Reynolds number,
the Nusselt numberE/Nusselt numberNE ratio is different with
 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639 635

Fig. 5. Effect of delta-winglets arrangement on pressure drop: (a) Class 1 (b) Class 2 (c) Class 3 (d) Class 4.

increasing Reynolds number. It is attributed to the difference be-
tween the thermal boundary layer thickness of each fitted tube and
that of the plain tube. The friction factor and Friction factorE/Fric-
tion factorNE ratio obtained from the fitted tube with different VG
inserts are almost in a similar trend and tend to decrease with the
rise in Reynolds number. It is in coincident with the results ob-
tained by Eiamsa-ard et al. [39] for the alternate twisted-tapes in-
serts. Under a similar operating condition, the increase in friction
factor for the tube fitted with the Class 4, in general, is much higher
than the other classes and plain tube. This is because of higher flow
blockage from the delta-wings.
Finally, the mean deviations of Nusselt number and friction
factor values between the fitted tube and the plain one are sum-
marized in Table 3, according to the following definition,
 X 
1 fE  fNE 
Mean diviation ð%Þ ¼    100%
N  f  of the proposed inserts is feasible in terms of the energy saving at
NE
where, N is the number of the tested flow rate or Reynolds number.
As displayed in the table, Nusselt number and friction factor of the
tube fitted with the VG inserts are increased, respectively, from 9.3
to 41.5% and 9.7e78.6% as compared to those in the plain tube.
7.3. Performance evaluation criterion results
The defined PEC in Eq. (7) is used to evaluate the potential of
the tested VG inserts for the practical applications. The evalua-
tion is considered under the constant pumping power for each
insert with respect to the case without insert, i.e. plain tube.
Obviously, when the PEC is higher than unity, it indicates that the
applied insert is more in the favor of the heat transfer
enhancement rather than in the favor of the pressure drop
increasing. The variations of the PEC with Reynolds number for
different inserts are illustrated in Fig. 7(aed). Except at the
minimum Reynolds number, the PEC values of the fitted tube are
higher than unity. Therefore, it can be stated that for the range
investigated, the benefits from the heat transfer enhancement as
a positive effect over that from the increase of friction loss as a
negative effect. As shown, the PEC values of all classes almost
increase, as Reynolds number increases. This implies that the use
(15)
the higher Reynolds numbers. The average and maximum
enhancement values of the PEC for the VG inserts with different
arrangements of the delta-winglets are presented in Table 4.
From the tabulated results, the Type 12 shows a significant
average and maximum enhancements in the PEC, and the Type
636 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639

Fig. 6. (a) (Nusselt number)E/(Nusselt number)NE versus Reynolds number (b) (Friction factor)E/(Friction factor)NE versus Reynolds number for different classes of delta-winglets
arrangements.

14 comes in the second. This suggests that the delta-winglets
arrangement presented in the Type 12 and Type 14 is more
appropriate for the practical use than the others in the view point
of energy as well as operating cost savings. Finally, for the range
considered, the maximum PEC of 1.41 is found with the use of the
Type 12 as VG insert at the maximum Reynolds number.
7.4. Comparison between VG and other types of inserts
The TT (twisted-tape) insert is recognized as a well-known type
of the fluid turbulators, i.e. inserts. In the recent years, different
shapes of the TT inserts were proposed, for instance twin [33],
perforated [40], jagged [41], alternate [39], and non-uniform [42]. A

Table 3
Mean deviations of Nusselt number and friction factor between fitted tube with different VG inserts and plain one (%).

Type no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Nusselt number 16.8 9.3 17.6 19.6 12.7 10.2 20.4 18.1 9.8 21.4 32.6 41.5 27.6 41.9
Friction factor 12.9 9.7 21.1 22.7 31.3 17.2 21.2 36.6 17.1 57.3 78.6 35.2 36.9 41.8
 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639 637

Fig. 7. Effect of delta-winglets arrangement on performance evaluation criterion: (a) Class 1 (b) Class 2 (c) Class 3 (d) Class 4.

comparison of the PEC values between the obtained results for the
VG inserts (Class 4) in the present work and those from the pre-
vious works for the TT inserts at the range of the present work is
shown in Fig. 8. As shown in the figure, at the studied range, the PEC
value of different TT inserts decreases with the rise in Reynolds
number. It is in coincident with the present results for the Type 11.
It is attributed to the high pressure drop values of this type at the
higher Reynolds numbers, see Fig. 5(d). Also, the PEC values of the
Type 10 are slightly higher than those of the perforated TT and
lower than those of the jagged TT. However, the PEC value of the
Type 12 and Type 14 gives higher and higher values, as Reynolds
number increases. It can be concluded that the main advantages of
the VG inserts are their simple fabrication and considerable per-
formance, particularly at the higher Reynolds numbers, in com-
parison with the other types of the inserts.
8. Conclusion
The effects of different arrangements of the delta-winglets on
the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the tube
equipped with the VG inserts are experimentally studied in a
transition flow using water, as a testing fluid, under constant
temperature condition. According to the obtained results, the
conclusions can be drawn as follows,
➢ Under the similar conditions, the heat transfer rate, pressure
drop as well as PEC in a tube fitted with the VG inserts are
consistently higher than those in the plain tube.
➢ It is found that the VG inserts of two side cut with four delta-
winglets perform a better heat transfer rate than the other ar-
rangements of the delta-winglets.

Table 4
Average and maximum enhancement values of PEC for different inserts compared to plain tube (%).

Type no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Average enhancement 14.2 6.9 11.1 12.4 3.3 4.8 13.5 6.7 4.3 4.5 9.4 28.5 15.1 26.7
Maximum enhancement 20.2 14.9 19.3 17.1 7.4 8.9 21.6 11.7 7.8 8.2 12.9 40.9 20.7 35.5
638 M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / Energy 82 (2015) 629e639

Fig. 8. Comparison of PEC values between obtained results for VG inserts (Class 4) in present work and those from previous works for TT inserts.

➢ For all classes, the PEC values are apparently above unity and k thermal conductivity, W m1 K1
increase with the increase of Reynolds number. This indicates h performance evaluation criterion
the beneficial effect for the energy saving by the uses of the
proposed VG inserts, especially at the high Reynolds numbers.
Dimensionless groups
➢ For the range considered, the maximum thermal performance
f fanning friction factor ¼ rDhDP/2LG2
factor of 1.41 is found.
Nu Nusselt number ¼ hDh/k
Re Reynolds number ¼ GDh/m
Finally, the results obtained from this experimental attempt
demonstrate the ability of the studied VG inserts as heat transfer
enhancers. Although the VG inserts developed in this research are Subscripts
tested inside a single tube, they still have great potential for use in a b bulk fluid
variety of different applications of heat exchangers. b,in fluid inlet
b,out fluid outlet
Acknowledgments j specific parameter counter
LMTD logarithmic mean temperature difference
The authors would like to acknowledge with appreciation to w wall
Islamic Azad University (IAU), Shahrood Branch for their supports
through the set-up fabrication and research implementation. Acronyms
HTE heat transfer enhancement
Nomenclature DWVG delta-winglet vortex-generator
TT twisted-tape
A total surface area in contact with working fluid, m2 VG vortex-generator
Dh hydraulic diameter of tube, m
Cp specific heat capacity, J kg1 K1 References
G mass velocity, kg m2 s1
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